Sporting News Today

They recently sent out a questionnaire wondering if I'd pay for the service. I said no. I do read certain things in it everyday. I enjoy it. I wish our shop could do something like that in addition to putting out a printed product.

 

I still read it most weekdays. I don’t find it boring at all. Can’t imagine anyone has time to read the whole thing — I just looked at today’s; it’s 61 pages — but I surf for the things I’m most interested in: 49ers reports, NBA inside dish, the daily My profile I really like, baseball hot stove stuff, some of the recruiting. There’s a lot of the stuff we talk about doing in my shop (but don’t) — alternative story forms, player diaries, Q&As. I find it very readable but that’s just me.

Tell you what, though: TSN the magazine has become something really special and unique, I think. I’ve been a subscriber for years. Used to take me an hour to flip through it; I now read it cover to cover. All of my contacts there have either gotten canned or left during TSN’s many phases of layoffs/buyouts, but someone really knows what they’re doing there. It doesn’t have the long features like SI does — that’s OK; as much as I love Gary Smith, I’m not taking an hour to read a takeout on a Texas high school runner — but they do a great job of talking to a ton of people and mixing up story formats throughout every page. It’s 1,000 times better than ESPN, but then again, so is Home and Garden.

Freelance rumor: I used to string for them about 6-8 years ago — back then, you were lucky to get paid within two months of your story running — but I know from reading my 49ers notes that they still use newspaper beat guys to cover every NFL team. I don’t see many freelancers in the magazine other than John Feinstein and Will Leach, but then, I haven’t seen many freelancers in there at all since they changed to the every other week format last year.

 

haven't gotten that questionnaire but I might be willing to fork over a few bucks a month if the price was reasonable ... it's good stuff...

 

apseloser: you should take the time to read Gary Smith's takeout on the texas high school track athlete, if for no other reason because his description is amazing, at least in my opinion. I'm sure others thought it was overwritten. To me, those takeouts are what used to set SI apart.

 

playthrough: i agree. but you know how people are.